This story remains the
copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced,
copied, or distributed without the expressed written permission of
the author. If you would like to share this story with others,
please share the Smashwords.com link, not the story itself. This
will help the story to spread not just by word of mouth, but by
curiosity.

This story is a story
about you, the person reading this story right this second.
You may find this implausible and silly, but please do your best to
get over this, because it's actually true. This story is about you.

This story is about
you, but the you of many, many years from now. You are very old, and
finally nearing your end. You are laying on a hospital bed, with a
respirator over your mouth and nose and with various tubes and
monitors attached to you, and you are in the later throes of whatever
it is that is finally going to kill you. If you try to leave the
hospital, you know that you will die somewhere in the hallway. You
are laying on your deathbed, and you know it. With your room all to
yourself, you sit and reflect.